How Long Should Your Landing Page Be?

Have you ever wondered how long your landing page should be? Some people say long landing pages convert better, while others say short ones are better.

So, the question that comes to mind is:

How long should your landing page be?

Sadly, the answer isn’t as simple as “long” or “short”. The real answer is “it just depends”. But don’t worry, I’m going to break down how you should determine if you need a long or short landing page.

What are your visitors’ objections?

Have you ever wondered what the biggest secret to a high converting landing page is? It all comes down to answering objections.

Good marketers don’t place text, or proof elements like testimonials, on a page for no reason. Everything you place on your landing page should address potential objections.

For example, if someone tells you they aren’t willing to make a purchase from your site because they don’t feel safe about putting in their credit card details, you would want to combat this through trust seals such as VeriSign or customer testimonials.

Before you answer your visitors’ objections, however, you need to find out what they are. By using surveying tools like Qualaroo, you can ask your visitors questions like:

What else would you like to see on this page?

Why didn’t you complete the purchase?

What’s the one thing that I could have done to convince you to sign up?

People will share with you their reasons for not converting. Once you have 30 or 40 responses, you will start seeing commonalities.

You can then take those objections and integrate the answers to them within your landing page copy. Once you implement this, you’ll notice an increase in your conversion rate.

The one thing to note when answering objections is that you shouldn’t worry about your page length. Sometimes you will be able to answer them through a simple image. Other times, e.g., in the case of a more complicated objection, you will have to include a few paragraphs of text.

The bigger the ask, the longer the page

If you are asking someone for their email address in exchange for a free ebook, your landing page probably doesn’t need to be too long. Why? Because asking someone for an email address isn’t too big of a deal.

It currently converts at 67.2%, which isn’t bad. It does well because I am only asking you to enter your website URL. I’m not selling anything, nor am I even asking you for your email address. For that reason it’s easy for me to have a high conversion rate through a short landing page.

On the other hand, if you are asking someone to make a $1,000 purchase from your site, you will need a long landing page. No matter what you are selling, people are always nervous about big purchases even if your company is well known. By having a long landing page, you’ll be able to build a connection with your visitors, plus you’ll be able to answer all of their objections.

Break up your landing pages

Whether you are selling a product or a service, you should consider breaking up your landing page into multiple steps. This will train your visitors to make small commitments, which makes them more likely to complete the transaction.

For example, we ask for an email and password on Crazy Egg before we ask for your credit card information. In other words, we’ve broken this down into two steps instead of one. Why? Because through A/B testing, we’ve learned that you are at least 10% more likely to complete the purchase in the two-step scenario. Apparently, you feel that since you have already given us your email address, you might as well give us your credit card details.

This is what I call the hoop theory, which says that getting your visitors to invest a little at a time will turn them into customers.

This strategy is so effective that e-commerce companies use it with their checkout process. Just think about Amazon…When you are checking out, you see your cart first, then a landing page with your shipping information and then a credit card checkout page.

To show you the effectiveness of breaking up your landing page into multiple steps, I decided to run a test on Quick Sprout. I added an email address field to the homepage, and it dropped the conversion rate down to 29%: out of 100 visitors, only 29 gave me their URLs and email addresses.

But when I asked visitors for their email addresses in step 2, instead of the homepage, there was a 91% chance that they gave them to me.

That means out of 100 visitors, 67 entered their URLs. And out of the 67 people that entered their URLs, 60 gave me their email addresses.

By breaking up the landing page into two steps instead of one, I was able to collect 60 emails instead of 29. That’s a big difference.

Avoid these common mistakes

Your goal shouldn’t be to create a short or long landing page; instead, it should be to create a high converting page. Here are some of the things you need to keep in mind:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – do not sell more than one thing on your landing page. The more complicated you make things, the lower your conversion rate will be. You can also keep things simple by reducing options such as navigational ones.

A picture says a thousand words – when possible, use images or videos to describe your product or service. This will help you reduce the length of your landing page.

Messaging is important – when you surveyed your visitors to figure out their objections, they told you what they wanted to see. If you use the commonly mentioned words within the survey results in your landing page copy, you’ll see an increase in conversion rate.

Conclusion

If you are making your visitors commit to a small ask, e.g., give you their email address, and they don’t have too many objections, your landing page should be short.

If you are asking for a big commitment, e.g, making a $1,000 purchase, you’ll need a long landing page as there will be a lot of objections for you to address.

The length of your landing page typically revolves around how big or small your ask for a commitment is as well as how many objections there are to it.

Once you create your landing page, make sure you run a few A/B tests as there are always exceptions to the rule, and there will be room to improve your conversion rate.

Yes because through an auto responder you can connect with your readers and get to know them on a more emotional level. After 7 emails (you want to send 7 as it takes a while for people to get to know you) you will have a much easier chance of closing a sale.

This is another important information I was looking for and thank you for sharing this.

I am in process of creating a good landing page for a new premium managed WordPress hosting program I am about to launch. Creating a landing page that converts is a significant task and every bit helps. Coming from you, it definitely makes a lot of sense.

Completely off topic, but I keep quoting / paraphrasing you when you said that when you can get people to email you (and you email them back), they’re X times more likely to buy from you. Trouble is I can’t find the source any more and it’s a great quote I’d like to reference. Do you happen to know where you wrote it?

Great article and timely for me since I’m in the process of creating several landing pages for my business. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on long vs. short landing pages and what my main objective should be. Sometimes it’s easy for me to get sidetracked in trying to make my landing pages pretty instead of focusing on conversions.

Second, I’m a bit confused. (OK, a lot confused). Given that a landing page can easily be created on a site/blog, from which you can gather metrics using various tools, such as Google Analytics, what’s the value of landing page providers, such as Unbounce, Lickoff Labs, Lander, etc.?

Joe, glad I could help and I am glad you are finding the guide helpful. The providers you mentioned really go above and beyond to ensure that people do not bounce from your site. They may suggest a number of tweaks such as pop-ups and other modifications.

As Neil has brought out that for larger priced transactions we need to have a long landing pages to convince the buyer and once the buyer is convinced that you are going to address his need then even short landing page like Air Ticketing sites equally perform. Aim is to have a pay button placed prominently displayed in the top fold of the site.

Thanks Neil for proving your point with A/B testing as at times all of us may not be that patient to perform the said tests.

Given that most wordpress built sites enable one to create a page that could be designed as a Landing Page, I don’t get what the value add is that’s provided by Landing Page providers such as Lander, Unbounce, Kickoff Labs, etc.

I think we should at least put a limit to the maximum length of landing page. I have seen landing pages that are atleast 7-8 page scrolls. I don’t want to scroll that much. I don’t believe that if you have that much content then you need to create a landing page. It should be a small website then.

I am happy as along as the landing page is not more than 2 page folds long. A lot of MLM websites have corrupted the concept of landing page. Landing pages should highlight the information that the user needs to sign up on the site. I will never read a landing page that has 7-8 pages of text. And I think people have got smart over the years. They not get suspicious about the authenticity when they see a really long page.

So, although we cannot set how long it should be, I think we should set the maximum length.

@Adrijus G. – If you have recently launched a long copy then I think you should wait and see how that long copy converts for you and then test with a short on so have enough data to compare with and analyze. I don’t know what are Neil’s thoughts on this.

P.S – sorry for the previous message where I forgot to mention @Adrijus G

A concern I have is your use of the term “objection” which is an outdated sales approach to dealing with customers and potential customers.
Whenever I hear that buyers have “objections” from seasoned sales people and trainers I ask them three simple questions.
1. What is your definition of “objection”
2. In a sales context where and when was it first used
3. What proof do you have that buyers have “objections”
On all three accounts I’m met with silence. “Buyers objections” is an artificial construct by the sales person who views the sales process from the first perceptual position.

For me an objection is a reason they are not interested in buying. In many cases they are just pure excuses that aren’t relevant, but if you gather data from enough people and there are trends, then you can test the objection out.

With everything you should run A/B tests to double check to see if this method is helping. It has worked wonders for all the businesses I have touched.

Talking about landing pages. Just as Neil as pointed out, most success you’ll achieve in any marketing venture including creating long/short landing page boils down to your ability to A/B test things. Depending on the kind of product you’re selling and market you are.

Another thing that can make a landing page to go a long way is, if you can create a free e-Course for new subscribers instead of a free eBook. Reason: I found out that if you offer a free 30 day training/course for new subscribers they are more likely to convert because they’ve signed up for a free course somewhere and they are somehow bound or obligated to attend class.
According to my personal research, some people who give their email in exchange for a free pdf never read the pdfs just to satisfy their unseen psychological interest for FREE things.

Anyway, learn to A/B test things on any landing page you’ve got or are creating. The tactic that works for Mr. Landing might not be right for Mr. Page.

That is a great write up, I think the biggest point raised is a landing page is all about addressing peoples objections and easing anxiety. This is something most people tend to forget when they are creating a landing page ( myself included) but is arguably the most important aspect in “getting the sale.”

A landing page’s role on a website is basically a static sales person, and the job is to ease the visitor into taking the action you want them to – this is achieved by addressing their concerns and finding the right way to display value, as well as back up any claims one makes.

I think Joe Garma in the comments makes a great point – your landing page for your traffic system is excellent ( although it is a lot longer than the average landing page).

Although it can be longer as It does a number of things very well , first and foremost it elegantly establishes you as a top tier expert by displaying testimonials from some of your high profile clients ( obviously the results you got for them are outstanding and they are a fantastic selling point on their own).

Secondly you educate the reader as to what is possible with regards to traffic generation. You do this in a beautifully laid out and easy to read way – that captures the attention even when glancing over the text, this is done by a combination of font, colour, layout and images.

You use simple but motivating language and well as fantastic presentation. You also have a section at the bottom that clearly lists exactly what you get in the guide and in great detail as to “build up the perceived value” of your product in the mind of the reader – you even add in bonus content which goes a long way to do this as well.

You also use “credibility indicators” which further boost your standing and the quality of your work, this is achieved by showing some of the clients / companies you have done work for. You also relieve the readers anxiety by providing a money back guarantee as well as an in depth FAQ that the reader can go through and get the answers to the commonly asked questions.

Of course all works largely due to the skill and knowledge you have in digital marketing, and the fantastic reputation you have built for yourself over the years through getting incredible results for your clients – but anybody can learn from the techniques you have applied and make their landing pages more powerful, as long as they understand the underling techniques you use and why they work for you.

That’s very clever, Neil. I like the idea of the two step process. I will have to implement this when I open up my site. Which reminds me, totally off topic, but what are you recommendations on where to get a logo made?

Nice post. I completely agree to you, I think that its just logical that you give the reader everything possible that he could want and only after a while get his contacts or make him pay. I have been using this technique for some campaigns and it worked perfect.
Well I never went so deep as you just did, but I try to think logical an what I would like to see.

In many cases I think sellers create long landing pages because they are not comfortable with the pricing of their product or service, so their is an urge to explain why is it so “expensive”…
Instead of answering on some main, very important questions.
Great article!

Hey Neil
Great actionable tips as always.
Landing pages are so important to the modern marketer, it is awesome to have some tips from someone who has really seen what works and what doesn’t.
Of course we have to go away and A/B test ourselves too!
cheers
ashley

I think, design of landing page also matters a lot along with length of landing page. A well designed and intuitive landing page can be lengthy but may convert very well. However, a “pushy” landing page might be short, but may be skipped by users.

So, it boils down to the very fact that, what are we offering to people when they land on our page. My 2 scents.

Yesterday, in my WordPress PHP and Database class, we discussed how often new website owners make decisions based on “I want” instead of on what works. This article is a great resource to turn the “I want” into rational analysis!

Thanks Neil, I purchased your quick sprout traffic system and am finding it very useful . You are really a genius . free consultation call has been scheduled on 2nd of Dec so I am very eager to talk to you 🙂 🙂 …..I also have lots of doubts to be clarified regarding my business… see u soon ….

Neil i really impressed with creativity in your blogs, Landing page optimization is related with inbound marketing and i have personally feel you will get huge revenue once you are able to lower the bounce rate of the page.

I agree that “long” or “short” landing pages don’t matter, what matters is why should people believe in you even you’re a well-known company. A/B split testing is the ultimate way to optimize the landing pages for better conversion rate. Moreover, it would be best if we can get opinions from customers for why they didn’t complete their purchase.
Cheers,
Tony

Hi Neil,
Am building a landing Page for a new business. It will be asking people to attend a one-day program (it’s free).
Do you have any stats or suggestions how long the campaign should run prior to the seminar date?
Regards
Gerald

I just finished reading your blog post, wow, it’s amazing how after 1 short year (well, I guess it’s almost a year and half by now), you have accomplished what you have got so far.
I just picked up a lot of helpful tutorials, which I’m going to give them all a try. That’s also crazy how you have got so popular in the search engines without much link-building tactics. Thanks for the helpful post !

Thanks for the tips, they were very useful, but may just say that I am extremely annoyed by your (the website-s) pop ups. They disrupt my experience, and I hate to have to click 3-4 pop-ups so I can read an article. Did you test this? do people really convert more because of the pop-ups? Honestly, I’d rather get targeted by remarketing or get newsletters than see 3 (three) pop ups in one minute. Maybe it’s just me….